Working on Wednesday: Franz Graaf/Francis Grove (1733 - 1812) Immigrant & Farmer

From Swiss records for the town of Rafz we know that this maternal 5X great grandfather left his native land in 1743 when he was a ten year old orphan in the company of his maternal uncle and his family.

[Emigration record for Francis Grove, 16 May 1743, Rafz, Zurich, Switzerland.

Source: Staatsarchiv Zurich.}

Fortunately for those of us who aren't fluent in German, a translation is available. As far as I can tell he never followed his father's (and uncle's) trade of mason.

[From Faust, A. Bernhardt. (1920-1925). Lists of Swiss emigrants in the eighteenth century to the American colonies. Volume 1 Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society. Source: HathiTrust]

Young Franz made it safely to Pennsylvania where he settled in Shrewsbury in York County and later* married the daughter of another Swiss couple  Hans/John Segrist and his wife Anna Wildberger.

This list informs us that Francis Grove** was taxed for 200 acres of land, two horses and two cows in 1779.

[Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Tax and Exoneration, 1768-1801 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Tax & Exoneration Lists, 1762–1794. Series No. 4.61; Records of the Office of the Comptroller General, RG-4. Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.]

And he was counted in the 1786 Pennsylvania Septennial Census.

[Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Septennial Census, 1779-1863 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Septennial Census Returns, 1779–1863. Box 1026, microfilm, 14 rolls. Records of the House of Representatives. Records of the General Assembly, Record Group 7. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, PA.]

There's a 1790 federal census record that may refer to him, but I'm not convinced because it's the enumeration for a township in Lancaster County and I don't know that he had any connection to any place but York County and I wasn't able to locate him in the 1800 U.S. Census.

But he's listed in the 1810 U.S. Census.

[Year: 1810; Census Place: York, York, Pennsylvania; Roll: 57; Page: 157; Image: 00168; Family History Library Film: 0193683. Ancestry.com. 1810 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Third Census of the United States, 1810. (NARA microfilm publication M252, 71 rolls). Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

On Friday I'll take a look at his will which was probated in 1812.

["Pennsylvania Probate Records, 1683-1994," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G99B-V4RD?cc=1999196&wc=9PM8-4WG%3A268493601%2C270673301 : 3 July 2014), York > Wills 1803-1818 vol L-N > image 248 of 800; county courthouses, Pennsylvania.]

*The exact date of their wedding isn't known but their oldest child was born in October of 1760.
**Note how his name has been anglicized in this record, although in the list of wills for York County his surname was written as Groff.



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